Resonance production and decay in pion induced collisions with HADES

Abstract

The main goal of the High Acceptance Di-Electron experiment (HADES) at GSI is the study of hadronic matter in the 1-3.5 GeV/nucleon incident energy range. HADES results on e+ e− production in proton-nucleus reactions and in nucleus-nucleus collisions demonstrate a strong enhancement of the dilepton yield relative to a reference spectrum obtained from elementary nucleon-nucleon reactions. These observations point to a strong modification of the in-medium ρ spectral function driven by the coupling of the ρ to baryon-resonance hole states. However, to scrutinize this conjecture, a precise study of the role of the ρ meson in electromagnetic baryon-resonance transitions in the time-like region is mandatory. In order to perform this study, HADES has started a dedicated pion-nucleon programme. For the first time a combined measurement of hadronic and dielectron final states have been performed in π−-N reactions at four different pion beam momenta (0.656, 0.69, 0.748 and 0.8 GeV/c). First results on exclusive channels with one pion π−-p and two pions (nπ+π−, pπ−π0) in the final state, which are currently analysed within the partial wave analysis (PWA) framework of the Bonn-Gatchina group, are discussed. Finally first results for the dielectron analysis will be shown.